A Veteran's Promise
by arelia22
Summary: Maybe the war was over and the years had gone by. But he still remembered and never forgot, because the damage was already done. But he vows to protect what he still has and nothing will stand in his way when it all comes down and they suddenly can't stand fearing him as much as they do. Tags: After Quincy War, slight romance, Depression episodes, fluff, promises of destruction?


**Hello guys and happy Veteran's day! Here is a small one-shot I whooped up for today so please enjoy!**

 **#AVP#**

Ichigo sighed as he observed the rain pitter pattering against the window of his bedroom. His sigh fogged the glass for a couple of seconds before it once again cleared and the sight returned. He could see people outside scurrying to find refuge and could slightly sympathize with them while he silently thanked whatever other worldly being was out there that he was inside and dry with his family.

All of a sudden, as if summoned by the mere thought, he felt thin arms wrap around his middle and the body heat of another human that he easily recognized as Orihime's. She didn't say a words as she draped herself against him, and the only recognition he gave of her presence was bringing a hand up to grasp her own and give it a slight squeeze.

They stayed in silence for a couple of minutes before a strike of lightning flashed against the sky and the loud boom of the thunder followed behind. Her free hand tightened from where she had it wrapped around his bicep and he had the certainty that it had nothing to do with the thunderstorm.

"The rain is beautiful." Ichigo murmured into the dead silence of the afternoon, his voice barely above a whisper that was almost carried away by the storm raging outside.

Orihime's grip loosened ever so slightly before she relinquished it entirely to shift around and burry herself against the crook of his throat. He absently raised a hand to her head and embraced her as if his life depended on it.

" _If I were the rain, that joins the sky and earth that otherwise never touch, would I be able to join to hearts as well?"_ she recited, her calm voice helping to ease his nerves as if she were the medicine to his temporary melancholy "Do you remember, when I told you that?" she asked instead, almost as if disregarding his comment as a mere fracture of their imagination.

"Yes." Ichigo answered back, his voice slightly stronger than before "It was on a rainy day like this one, a couple weeks after the last war."

She hummed in agreement before she shifted ever so slightly so that she could see his expression better "That wasn't the first time I murmured those words before." Orihime revealed.

His sadness did not leave his eyes, but Orihime counted it as a win when she noticed the slight twitch upwards his lips made. "It was also on a rainy night, when I said good-bye before going to Hueco Mundo."

Ichigo looked down with mirth dancing against his tired brown eyes as he combed a hand through her silky sunset colored hair "A promise to the skies."

"To you." Orihime refuted "And myself."

Ichigo's smile grew slowly and slightly crooked, as if he had forgotten how to complete the smile long ago and was trying to recreate his best attempt. Orihime didn't feel upset about this, and was actually glad that Ichigo hadn't fallen into despair. The only thing she wished, was that these episodes weren't normal in her life now.

"Promises." He repeated "I've made many promises over the years." He reminded her.

"And you've always kept true to them." She smiled "I know you will continue to do so."

He kept silent for a moment, and for a second there, Orihime was almost afraid that she had lost him again, that he had gone so deep in his turmoil that he wouldn't speak again.

"I resent them." He revealed, as if Orihime didn't already know his thoughts inside out and needed clarification. "I resent what they did and how they acted. But more than anything, I resent what they _didn't_ do."

"You're talking about the war." She interjected, her mind dead set on making sure that Ichigo didn't end up to deep, and for that she at least needed to keep her side of the conversation even if she understood everything without need for clarification.

"A war they started." He whispered back "A war they knew was going to happen but never took precaution against. They had to rely on _us_ ; we don't exist just to clean up their mess."

"Aizen Sousuke." A small smile curved her mouth as she tried to give him strength with her mere presence "If you had told me back then that you would one day defend the biggest megalomaniac psychopath in existence, I would have dropped _him_ to second place."

Ichigo gave a light humorless chuckle as his arms tightened around his wife. Sometimes he felt as if he was at the brink of insanity, and other times those moments felt like mere illusions swallowed by time.

"I'm not defending him, nor are we buddy buddies or something. I can just relate to him, and he can do the same." A bitter smile curved his lips that had Orihime shuddering inwardly "In the end, I was the only one that understood him, and he knew it."

He sighed as he tried to gain comfort from her presence in his arms before his attention was once again taken by the pitter patter of rain outside. It wasn't raining hard, but it was still wet outside and the lounging clouds showed that the weather would remain this way for the foreseeable future.

"Ywach is gone because you gave it your all." She reminded him, as if trying to make him see what he already knew "They're weak because they wouldn't- _won't_ sacrifice the same you did and _would_ when the time comes." She paused, as if thinking her words carefully before- "They can't risk losing you."

"Aizen also made that man's defeat possible." He pointed out with a wary smile "His reasons might have been selfish but at least he didn't pull his punches when the time came." Ichigo's grip tightened and Orihime almost felt suffocated before he subsided ever so slightly "He fought for them and now he's back where he was, locked up n the depths of hell because they fear him too much."

Orihime stayed silent as the words hung in the air between them. She knew what he was not saying, and honestly she was sometimes scared of what Soul Society was capable of.

 _They fear me too._

"But they can't risk losing you." She repeated once more, her conviction heightening as she tried to reason with what she knew was a fact.

"They're weak." He whispered in response, mirroring her previous words in a way that made her heart tighten "They are arrogant of their own silly power that they can't see what is right in front of them. The _truth_." Ichigo paused as he weighed his own words before saying what they _all_ knew, but were to afraid to say. "I could overpower them any day, and make them see what their arrogance to not release their bankai or train _harder_ brings."

Orihime ponders his words as she stares into his deep brown eyes. They are tired, a mirror show casing the reality of how weighed down Ichigo really was. He had fought and fought for many years for what he thought was right and always stood up no matter what. He led troops to victory and slaughtered armies for their sake and no one thought to recognize what he lost; what he can never regain.

She sees him and can't help but see a war veteran where there should only be a loving husband and father that is tired of taking lives and now fights to keep them with his very own hands and knowledge.

But-

"Do you want to?" she says instead of trying to talk him out of those morbid thoughts "Do you want to bring them to the ground?"

But she sees him for what he is and accepts it. The darkness that plagues his nightmares and thoughts. The fierce determination that fuels his life and that want to try _harder_ that no one else can see but their closest.

She sees a man far too broken to be considered healthy and can't help but feel he is still her crowning jewel.

"I don't want another war." He whispers instead, and Orihime shakes herself mentally to try and get back on track to understand what he's talking about. "I want to live my life as peacefully as possible while it lasts."

She untangles herself from Ichigo's grasp to stand right in front of him and look deep into his eyes. She keeps his hand in hers though, and gives it a light squeeze as her eyes harden with strength that she previously lacked back when they're lives started to go to hell.

"You'd have an army right behind you, troops that would throw their life away if you'd only give them a reason why. The power of others at your fingertips and I would be one step behind."

He hums in acknowledgement and Orihime can see the gears in his head turning as his eyes narrow slightly in a way that told her he was an inch away from giving an Ichigo-esque scowl. "I don't need an army."

"You don't." she agrees "But you'd have one anyways."

Ichigo sighs as he reaches out to her and she instinctively melts into his embrace. He stays silent and the only noise is the slight pitter patter of the rain outside the window of their room. It's a comforting sound, a reminder that something exists outside their enclosed little world that helps keep him rooted to the present and not lose himself in the past or a future yet to be written.

Suddenly there is noise downstairs that has him stiffening in reflex before he hears excited chatter of a voice that he instantly distinguishes as his son's. A second later a second voice enters the conversation in a slightly high pitch tone that undoubtedly belongs to their daughter before a third cuts in loud enough for them to understand.

"Oni-chan, Hime-chan, we're back!" Yuzu calls, and he instantly knows that if they don't call back our go down soon, they will come looking for them.

"We'll be right down Yuzu-chan!" Orihime answers back, and Ichigo embraces her a little tighter before breathing in her calming sent and letting go.

They walk down together and when Kazui instantly runs up to him and hugs him while he recounts enthusiastically about his first day of school he trys to plaster a smile on his face and brighten his eyes with something that some would describe as interest. A second later he's almost tackled to the ground by Masaki who is just as hyped as Kazui since today was her first day as a first grader as well.

Soon they're sitting at the table and eating dinner like a wonderful little family that they are. Orihime almost forgets about Ichigo's previous episode when she sees that his smile become realer and brighter. All of a sudden the conversation turns towards the other end of the table with Isshin and the kids at the center of the destruction when Ichigo grasps her hand and gives it a slight squeeze before cradling her hand like if it were something precious that he could not live without.

"If they threaten this I will." He promises and it honestly takes her a great deal of time to understand what he is talking about before the gears click in place.

 _If they threaten this family I will._

Now it was just a matter of _when_ not if.

She smiles back and gives his hand a squeeze back before answering her most honest tone "Of course dear."

They would be ready.

 **#AVP#**

 **And cut!**

 **That folks, is a one shot that I had had on my mind for a long ass time but had no inspiration to write. Then all of a sudden I open google and it says Veteran day and I'm all like** _ **Mind blow!**_ **So this is for today's festive and goes out to any of you who know a veteran and have been there for them like Orihime is there for Ichigo.**

 **Know, I admit IchiHime is not exactly my OTP but since that's how it ended I thught, well what the fuck, let's try to be as Canon as possible and accept fate. Now, no offense to IchiRuki lovers or any other OTPs that exist but I'm just writing it as it is. This story is set years after the war with Ywach and it did not end as simple as it did in Canon as you can imagine so there was a lot of drama going on and Ichigo wasn't as push over as he was in the manga –I mean c'mon! How many times did Zangetsu break again?!**

 **Yes, Aizen played kinda of a major role in the war and as you guessed it he was sent directly back to Muken for his effort. Ichigo doesn't** _ **like**_ **Aizen, but he can sympathize with him which is why he kinda-maybe-probably-a-little respects his strength and can relate to him.**

 **Ichigo isn't** _ **insane**_ **per say, but he's not exactly the stable-est cookie in the jar either so he sometimes has certain episodes where his sadness and resentment gets the better of him.**

 **Now I am working with my other stories, I just never have time to write when I get inspiration and I don't wanna force out something I'm gonna hate later on when I see how mediocre it is so please be patient. Either way thanks for reading and have a good day!**


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